Permafrost thaw

University of Florida post doctoral associate Jason Vogel beside one of the plastic chambers UF researchers used to measure carbon dioxide exchange on Alaskan permafrost from 2004 to 2006. Working near Denali National Park in central Alaska, the scientists determined that tundra sites that had thawed for 15 years gained net carbon as a result of increased plant growth, but sites that thawed for longer periods lost carbon. The result: Even as the Arctic greens, its escalating old carbon loss “could make permafrost a large biospheric carbon source in a warmer world,” according to a paper the scientists authored in the journal Nature.

(Ted Schuur/University of Florida)
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